Dear Colleague,

Molecular plant protection stands at a historic threshold where biology, technology, regulation, and entrepreneurship converge. Over the past two decades, molecular sciences—genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, gene editing, RNA interference, and symbiont engineering—have fundamentally reshaped entomology, plant pathology, and weed science. These tools no longer merely describe life; they direct its molecular dialogue. As highlighted in recent scholarship, molecular plant protection is becoming a discipline where sustainability emerges not as a slogan, but as a measurable biological architecture.

Against this backdrop, the International Molecular Plant Protection Congress (IMPPC) series has become one of the world’s most influential platforms guiding this transformation.

• IMPPC2019 (Adana): 42 keynote speakers, 14 companies — the first global declaration that molecular plant protection is a standalone discipline.
• IMPPC2023 (Bursa): 87 keynote speakers, 41 companies — crowned by Prof. Craig C. Mello’s Opening Lecture on RNA interference, connecting fundamental discovery to modern RNAi-based technologies.

Building on this expanding legacy, IMPPC2026 will be held on May 17–21, 2026, at the Kremlin Palace, Antalya, co-organized by Ankara University and three distinguished institutions under the Republic of Türkiye, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry: the General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies (TAGEM), the General Directorate of Food and Control, and the Department of Training and Publication.

This edition will gather over 90 keynote speakers and an unprecedented constellation of leaders shaping the future of molecular plant protection, including three Nobel Laureates:

• Prof. Brian Kobilka (2012, Chemistry) — whose GPCR work transformed receptor biology and underpins modern peptide-based biopesticide design.
• Prof. Craig C. Mello (2006, Physiology or Medicine) — whose discovery of RNA interference opened the molecular highway for gene-silencing technologies in agriculture.
• Prof. Martin Chalfie (2008, Chemistry) — whose work on GFP revolutionized molecular visualization and remains indispensable in diagnostics, symbiont tracking, and live-cell biology.